Virginia Cop Identified As Part Of White Nationalist Group

Leaked chat logs reveal that Daniel Morley, a school resource officer, recruits for Identity Evropa.

A police officer has been connected to white nationalist group Identity Evropa, joining a growing list of public employees who have been identified in a gargantuan leak of the group’s chat logs.

Daniel Morley, 31, a school resource officer at L.C. Bird High School in Virginia, holds a side gig as an organizer for Identity Evropa, a group noted for its part in the organizing of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The group (also known as the “American Identity Movement”) tasked Morley with helping new recruits through the application process.

He was first identified by anti-fascist activists scouring through hundreds of thousands of messages leaked by Unicorn Riot, an independent media organization.

Morley been suspended from his job at the high school, and Chesterfield County Police Chief Jeffrey Katz recommended he be fired pending a state-mandated disciplinary process, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“We are concerned and committed to determining if there is any truth to these allegations,” Katz said Monday. “There is absolutely no place for intolerance or prejudicial behavior in public service, and we will not tolerate affiliations which even remotely lend themselves to predispositions of bias.”

Morley ― using the moniker “Danimal876” ― had been posting on the white nationalist group’s private chat server since at least 2017, according to The Daily Beast. He used that handle on multiple platforms, including the white supremacist forum Stormfront, to espouse racist views and engage with likeminded bigots as far back as 2009.

On Identity Evropa’s server, he actively worked on recruitment.

“Good afternoon newcomers to IE! I’m the new pledge coordinator,” he wrote in September, according to the Daily Beast. “My job is to help guide people through the process of applying to IE and becoming full members of this great organization. If you have any questions about what you need to do next, DM me and I’ll get back to you.”

In August of 2018, the Chesterfield County Police Department posted a video of Morley, in which he introduced himself as the high school’s new resource officer.

“I want to ensure that the children of this county get to have the same safe childhood that I did growing up,” he says in the short clip.

Unicorn Riot’s leak of more than 700,000 messages has led to numerous groundbreaking reports about white nationalism, particularly as it pertains to public figures and employees in the United States.

HuffPost reported exclusively this week that seven members of the U.S. military were working directly with Identity Evropa, helping the group recruit on campuses and in cities across the country. There’s been reporting on the group’s efforts to support prominent white supremacists in office like Iowa Rep. Steve King; legitimize itself and recruit through college groups like Turning Point USA; and even infiltrate the GOP head-on.

Since Unicorn Riot’s drop, Identity Evropa attempted to rebrand by renaming itself the “American Identity Movement.”

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